The United States GP brought another Formula 1 win for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. With a time of 1:42:11.687, Verstappen managed to keep Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc behind in a highly competitive race.
Following the race, Red Bull have been confirmed as the 2022 Constructors Championship with 656 points. Ferrari with 469 remains in second with Mercedes a close third at 416. While the race was quite eventful, the waving of the checkered flag was anything but.
Formula 1 often invites celebrities to the track and allows them to wave the checkered flag at the end of the race. While often those celebrities are full of energy given the honour, sometimes things don’t go as expected.
When Apple CEO Tim Cook came to Austin, Texas for the Formula 1 race many expected the popular CEO to be enthusiastic. His checkered flag waving however was quite the opposite. Cook found himself the subject of online mockery as soon as fans saw his unenthusiastic flag-waving. Apple’s CEO seemed to be struggling with the flag and had to use both of his hands in order to wave it. He also did not show any emotion despite cars flying near him at more than 300kmph.
Following Tim Cook’s flat waving, many took to Twitter and started making memes about the half-hearted act. Even the sports website ESPN could not stop themselves from having a laugh. Posting a collage of Tim Cook, ESPN F1 wrote, “Tim Cook needs to calm down.”
Another Twitter user by the name Jeff Lannucci wrote, “Tim Cook waving the checkered flag at today’s F1 race is one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen.”
Have a look at how Twitter reacted to Tim Cook waving the checkered flag at the USA GP :
Going into Monday with the same enthusiasm as Tim Cook pic.twitter.com/pB3N5xV8pJ
— Dan – EngineMode11 (@EngineMode11) October 24, 2022
Tim Cook needs to calm down ?? pic.twitter.com/PY0STLBQPZ
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) October 23, 2022
Tim Cook waving the checkered flag at today’s F1 race is one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen. pic.twitter.com/WRKJOIGqi2
— Jeff Iannucci (@DesertDBA) October 23, 2022
Unfortunate mix-up for Tim Cook after signing up to the “surrendering your country” flag-waving course instead of the “F1 chequered flag” classes pic.twitter.com/GOY89gncjZ
— Chris Dixon (@chrismd10) October 23, 2022
Vettel and Kmag fighting like their life depends on it to the finish like
Tim Cook ? ?: #USGPpic.twitter.com/PCSWkxAzkE
— ahmed baokbah ?? ??? (@ahmed_baokbah) October 23, 2022
Tim Cook waving that flag as if he's having to touch a Windows PC ? pic.twitter.com/Y2BQfm32Em
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 23, 2022
Tim Cook sure ain't gonna close any exercise rings on his Apple Watch doing this. #USGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/daWM8rNhbT
— nascarcasm (@nascarcasm) October 24, 2022
Tim Cook about as excited to wave this flag as people are to buy the 50% more expensive base iPad. https://t.co/AQmPs6nD8Z
— Andrew Manganelli (@AndyManganelli) October 23, 2022
Tim Cook waving the checkered flag with the enthusiasm of me doing a software update on my phone pic.twitter.com/I6wDSHQuwd
— CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) October 23, 2022
F1: Tim, wanna wave the checkered flag?
TIM COOK: Yes, absolutely.
F1: The F1 show is staying with Netflix though.
TIM COOK: pic.twitter.com/elwyiRqBSI
— Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) October 23, 2022
Tim Cook has promised to wave the flag slightly better next year, but you'll have to pay him $1500 for the upgrade.
— Pablo Elizalde (@EliGP) October 23, 2022
Seems like Tim Cook didn’t want to be there with how he was waving that flag pic.twitter.com/Bko49fRgFq
— Matt | ??MEXICO CITY?? (@formulamatt3316) October 23, 2022
Tim Cook must never wave the flag ever again
— Fano (@sgubhusomkhonto) October 23, 2022
Hey grandpa, calm down ? #timcook #f1 #austingp pic.twitter.com/5wtTeRfJ8D
— Matteo Rigo (@matteorigo) October 23, 2022
Tim Cook obviously does many things very well.
Waving a chequered flag is not one of them. #F1 #USGP
— The Spare Steward ? (@SpareSteward) October 23, 2022
Tim Cook wins the award of least enthusiastic checkered flag wave of all time. #AustinGP #USGP
— Jeano (@Jeano96_) October 23, 2022
ELECTRIC ENERGY FROM TIM COOK!! pic.twitter.com/vsJZMeSRoS
— Nikolaiii?? (@Nmartinez7) October 23, 2022
